Wanderers

Wanderers

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wanderers, by Knut Hamsun #4 in
our series by Knut Hamsun
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: Wanderers
Author: Knut Hamsun
Release Date: March, 2005 [EBook #7762] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on May 14, 2003]

Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
WANDERERS ***

Produced by Eric Eldred, Robert Connal and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.

WANDERERS
Translated from the Norwegian of
Knut Hamsun
by W. W. Worster

With an Introduction
by W. W. Worster

CONTENTS
Under the Autumn Star
A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings

INTRODUCTION

An autobiographical element is evident in practically everything that
Hamsun has written. But it is particularly marked in the two volumes
now published under the common title of "Wanderers," as well as in the
sequel named "The Last Joy." These three works must be considered
together. They have more in common than the central figure of "Knut
Pedersen from the Northlands" through whose vision the fates of
Captain Falkenberg and his wife are gradually unfolded to us. Not only
do they refer undisguisedly to events known to be taken out of
Hamsun's own life, but they mirror his moods and thoughts and
feelings during a certain period so closely that they may well be
regarded as diaries of an unusually intimate character. It is as
psychological documents of the utmost importance to the
understanding of Hamsun himself that they have their chief
significance. As a by-product, one might almost say, the reader gets the
art which reveals the story of the Falkenbergs by a process of indirect
approach equalled in its ingenuity and verisimilitude only by Conrad's
best efforts.
The line of Hamsun's artistic evolution is easily traceable through
certain stages which, however, are not separated by sharp breaks. It is
impossible to say that one stage ended and the next one began in a
certain year. Instead they overlap like tiles on a roof. Their respective
characters are strikingly symbolized by the titles of the dramatic trilogy
which Hamsun produced between 1895 and 1898--"At the Gate of the
Kingdom," "The Game of Life," and "Sunset Glow."
"Hunger" opened the first period and "Pan" marked its climax, but it
came to an end only with the eight-act drama of "Vendt the Monk" in
1902, and traces of it are to be found in everything that Hamsun ever
wrote. Lieutenant Glahn might survive the passions and defiances of
his youth and lapse into the more or less wistful resignation of Knut
Pedersen from the Northlands, but the cautious, puzzled Knut has
moments when he shows not only the Glahn limp but the Glahn fire.
Just when the second stage found clear expression is a little hard to tell,
but its most characteristic products are undoubtedly the two volumes
now offered to the American public, and it persists more or less until

1912, when "The Last Joy" appeared, although the first signs of
Hamsun's final and greatest development showed themselves as early
as 1904, when "Dreamers" was published. The difference between the
second and the third stages lies chiefly in a maturity and tolerance of
vision that restores the narrator's sense of humour and eliminates his
own personality from the story he has to tell.
Hamsun was twenty-nine when he finished "Hunger," and that was the
age given to one after another of his central figures. Glahn is
twenty-nine, of course, and so is the Monk Vendt. With Hamsun that
age seemed to stand principally for the high water mark of passion.
Because of the fire burning within themselves, his heroes had the
supreme courage of being themselves in utter defiance of codes and
customs. Because of that fire they were capable of rising above
everything that life might bring--above everything but the passing of
the life-giving passion itself. A Glahn dies, but does not grow old.
Life insists